“Unfortunately, there isn’t such a man,” she said.  And she added, “Even a widow, sometimes, is vulnerable!”

Richard smiled, but some sudden thought made the smile but an absent one, and he sat quite obviously plunged in meditation for a long minute.  The clock and the fire ticked sleepily, and outside the high windows the first tentative flutter of snow was melting on bare boughs and brick walls.

“Here’s another suggestion, Miss Field,” he said, suddenly, looking up, “I don’t know how this will strike you; it has occurred to me before.  Gardiner hinted it—­or I thought he did, and the more I think of it, the more possible it seems.  You are a business woman, and I am a business man.  You know exactly what I am, exactly what occurred in my married life, after twenty-two years.  That—­that sort of thing is over, of course.  But there is that way of settling it, if you care to consider it—­”

He paused, with a questioning look of encouragement, embarrassment, and affectionate interest.  Harriet had grown pale, and had fixed her eyes upon his as if under a spell.

“You mean—­” Her voice failed her.

“I mean marriage.  I mean that you and I shall quietly get married in a few weeks, when I am free,” he answered.  “I have just indicated to you what it would mean to me.  I hope,” he added, watching her closely, as she sat stunned and silent, “I hope that it would also have its advantages to you.  Your position then would be unquestionable, my mother—­Nina—­the world, would have nothing to say.  I think you know how thoroughly we all like you, and that my share of our—­our business partnership would be to make you as happy as was in my power.  Your influence on Ward is the one thing that may save the boy.  Of Nina we’ve already spoken.  My mother—­I know her!—­would immediately become the champion of her son’s wife.  There would be a three days’ buzzing—­that would end it!”

The swift uprushing of joy in Harriet’s heart was accompanied with the first agonies of renunciation, was perhaps all the more poignantly sweet because of them.  She had not come to this hour without knowing what he meant to her, this quiet man with the splendid mouth and the keen gray eyes, and she trembled now with an exquisite emotion that seemed to drown out all the past and all the future—­everything except that she loved him, and he needed her!  But when she spoke it was as coolly as he: 

“Mr. Carter—­what of your wife?”

His eyes met hers wearily.

“Divorce proceedings were instituted immediately it was definitely established she had gone with young Pope.  The decree will be absolute.”

“But that will not—­cannot alter the situation—­” Harriet faltered.

“You mean—­” the man hesitated “—­you mean you—­that you regard me as married still?”

Harriet, mute with emotions absolutely overpowering, nodded without speaking.

“Will you—­will you let me think about it?” she faltered.  A sudden brightness came into his face.  “You know how I was brought up to think of divorce,” she went on, pleadingly.  “I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life, but I’ve never deliberately done what I felt was wrong.”